If you are looking for some casual reading, and you really do not want your Christian faith or life to be challenged or changed, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!
However, if you are looking to be challenged and changed in the way of following Jesus, if you are looking for your faith to be deepened in the way of discipleship, THIS IS A BOOK FOR YOU. But be careful, it might change your life.
Shane Claiborne grew up in east Tennessee in a good Christian home. He went to church, participated in youth group activities, believed all the right “stuff” about God and Jesus as the Son of God, and even had ambitions about how his life would unfold. Then, as Shane says, Jesus “wrecked” his life. Through various people and circumstances, especially in college and immediately after college in Philadelphia, Shane now strives to follow Jesus, to live as Jesus lived, caring for the poor, advocating justice, loving his neighbor in the poorest sections of that city, creating a home of hospitality and hope, and promoting Christ’s vision of peace that extends far beyond his environs in the inner city.
The Irresistible Revolution is a personal account of how his faith has evolved, and how he seeks to live from the deepest roots (radical/radix) of Christianity and counter to a consumer culture. His journey is conveyed with personal stories and wonderful humor from varied experiences in Calcutta with Mother Teresa, in Iraq with peaceworkers, and from his life with his neighbors both in Philadelphia and in other places. He is honest about the challenges of living faithfully and confesses his own failures; he also speaks strongly about Jesus’ rigorous calling to live and act, love and advocate, especially when we tend to be silent, inactive, or ineffective at working for Christ’s full reign. If we are followers of Jesus, we have much work to do, and there is no easy way.
Claiborne reveals insights and knowledge about the “mess of our world”: poverty and environmental issues, guns and injustice, and the problems caused by “redemptive violence.” His comments confront the reader to reflect on his/her own life and faith. Many of us affirm our belief in Jesus and fall short in our following of Jesus; yet following is mostly what Jesus asks from us. As Claiborne puts it: “I wondered what it would look like if we decided to really follow Jesus. In fact, I wasn’t exactly sure what a fully devoted Christian looked like. … What if Jesus meant the stuff he said?” (p. 71-72) Claiborne seeks to be a follower and he invites us to explore that journey too.
I read this book with several members of my church, and in conversation with many college students in my town. We are all now realizing how much the book has challenged and changed our lives. There is evidence of new commitments to serve God by helping the needy and downtrodden. There are new questions about the circumstances of our community and our world that are forcing us to find new ways of following Jesus and living as disciples. As Claiborne summarizes, “We believe poverty can end even though it is all around us. We believe in peace even though we hear only rumors of wars. And since we are people of expectation, we are so convinced that another world is coming that we start living as if it were already here” (p. 355).
To read this book is to be challenged with new commitments to love and serve following Jesus. This is the kind of book to refresh us and direct us in faithful living.
Alexander W. Evans is pastor of Blacksburg Presbyterian Church, Blacksburg, Va.
